The present invention relates generally to gumball machines, and, more particularly, to improvements in the dispensing wheel used for dispensing gumballs.
Gumball machines are well known in the art and are generally made of a metallic frame coupled to a transparent storage container for holding a supply of gumballs, a coin-operated dispensing mechanism, and a coin collection container. Generally, gumball machines dispense round gumballs of various sizes, and usually only one gumball at a time, although some machines are known to dispense two small gumballs.
It is well known that gumballs come in different sizes with the most common size being the one inch diameter size. The one inch diameter gumballs are dispensed one-at-a-time; however, some of the smaller sizes can be and are dispensed two-at-a-time.
To be able to dispense gumballs, the dispensing mechanism of a gumball machine includes a circular, ribbed dispensing wheel. Generally stated, the dispensing wheel is turned through an arc of 120xc2x0 with each dispensation. Therefore, to dispense a one-inch gumball with each dispensation, each of the three 120xc2x0 sections contains an aperture having a diameter that is slightly larger than one inch for carrying the gumball to the outlet chute and, therefore, out of the machine. For those dispensing mechanisms that dispense two smaller sized gumballs, they are designed to have two smaller apertures, side-by-side, in each 120xc2x0 section.
A somewhat common problem associated with some of the dispensing mechanisms used in gumball machines is that they have a tendency to jam during operation. This, in many instances, is caused by a gumball not being properly seated in the dispensing mechanism, either by a gumball that the machine was designed to dispense or by an extra gumball becoming partially seated in a dispensing wheel aperture, or by becoming lodged between an aperture and one of the other parts of the gumball machine including those associated with the dispensing mechanism. Along this line, some gumball vendors have even tried to dispense two one-inch gumballs by using other types of dispensing wheels that are currently available on the market, e.g., some vendors have replaced their standard dispensing wheel with a toy dispensing wheel which, because of jamming problems, has proved to be unsuccessful for dispensing two one-inch gumballs.
Therefore, there remains a need, and it would be highly desirable, to have a gumball machine that has a dispensing mechanism that can dispense two large gumballs during each dispensing cycle, while being relatively jam-free.
According to its major aspects and briefly recited, the present invention is an improvement to the dispensing mechanism used in gumball machines. More specifically, the improvement resides in the ribbed dispensing wheel of a gumball machine, which is a part of the gumball dispensing mechanism, and the improvement thereon allows the dispensing mechanism to dispense two large, one-inch gumballs, relatively jam-free. This is accomplished by fabricating appropriately sized crescent shaped openings through the ribbed dispensing wheel. In another embodiment of the present invention, the openings through the ribbed dispensing wheel are appropriately sized peanut shaped openings.
A feature of this invention is that it only requires the use of a single opening per dispensing cycle, which will provide the benefit of minimizing manufacturing costs.
Another feature of this invention is that many standard gumball machines would only require no, or merely simple, design modifications to be able to use the present invention.
An advantage of the present invention is that the improvement allows the gumball machine to remain relatively jam-free, while additionally benefitting the user by dispensing more gumball per dispensing cycle.